Secret Invasion Used AI Art for Credits Sequence

[Mister Mets]

Secret Invasion used AI Art for a credits sequence. Producer Ali Selim told Polygon it fit the themes of the story.

“When we reached out to the AI vendors, that was part of it — it just came right out of the shape-shifting, Skrull world identity, you know? Who did this? Who is this?” Selim says.

Like many people, Selim says he doesn’t “really understand” how the artificial intelligence works, but was fascinated with the ways in which the AI could translate the sense of foreboding he wanted for the series. “We would talk to them about ideas and themes and words, and then the computer would go off and do something. And then we could change it a little bit by using words, and it would change.”

Ars Technica describes the backlash.

On Wednesday, Marvel's latest comic book TV show, Secret Invasion, premiered on Disney+ to controversy: It features AI-generated motion graphics during its title sequence, and some fans and creators aren't happy about it. "For Marvel, whose whole empire is built on the work of artists to do this is disgusting and I for one shan’t be watching," tweeted Marvel comic artist Christian Ward, who worked on Black Bolt.

Jeff Simpson, a concept artist who directly worked on the Secret Invasion TV series for Marvel, tweeted, "Secret Invasion intro is AI generated. I’m devastated, I believe AI to be unethical, dangerous, and designed solely to eliminate artists' careers. Spent almost half a year working on this show and had a fantastic experience working with the most amazing people I ever met." In a following tweet, he clarified that he had nothing to do with the AI-generated intro.

I don't think Disney's doing anything wrong here, although from my perspective AI is a tool that artists can use, rather than a replacement. The main pitfalls are if it were to use an artist's work without compensation, but that's not the claim here. What do you guys think?

[thwhtGuardian]

Seems like a storm in a teacup to me

[Tofali]

I hope there are many ppl who react in derision towards any entertainment news outlet that peddles this non-story.

[babyblob]

I think is story is a nothingburger. We have Cgi and computer images all the time. USing AI art for the credits seems like it is nothing.

[j9ac9k]

I think this is mostly important to people in the industry who feel their livelihoods are at risk. However, it is of general interest for everyone because the precedents of how AI becomes perceived, treated and regulated in these industries first will help determine how AI is treated when it branches out and becomes much more prevalent and starts to potentially threaten everyone's livelihood.

[Vakanai]

I think this is mostly important to people in the industry who feel their livelihoods are at risk. However, it is of general interest for everyone because the precedents of how AI becomes perceived, treated and regulated in these industries first will help determine how AI is treated when it branches out and becomes much more prevalent and starts to potentially threaten everyone's livelihood.

I'm all for this - I want AI to threaten literally every human beings livelihood, because then we can actually discuss a post work-to-survive society. Humanity shouldn't have to need jobs for everyone to live forever, the goal should be to reach a point where technology does all jobs and humans can just focus on that which gives them pleasure or purpose outside of worrying how they're going to pay the bills. We're not going to reach that point in our lifetimes I think, but I'd like if we could get the ball rolling towards that direction so some day the people who come after us won't have their value as humans tied to earning money.

[Mister Mets]

I hope there are many ppl who react in derision towards any entertainment news outlet that peddles this non-story.

I don't think it's a non-story. Some prominent artists are pissed.

If they're right, it's a relevant story.
If they're wrong, that's still a relevant story about unreasonable demands.

[Kevinroc]

Jen Bartel has some really good insight from the artist's perspective.

https://twitter.com/heyjenbartel/sta...72202523639808

I need people to focus on the real issue here: the value of creative labor, aka jobs. This is not about whether or not it qualifies as "art", whether or not it looks bad, etc. All of that is a just a distraction when we live in a world where we need to work to in order to live.

I don't frankly care whether you believe it qualifies as "art" or if you actually think it "fits the narrative", that stuff is ultimately irrelevant when the livelihood of creative workers is dissolving before our very eyes. Corporations that employ us have a choice in this.

Efficiency and tech advancement could be prioritized if we had a societal structure that didn’t require people to work in order to obtain access to basic resources required to stay alive such as healthcare, housing, and food. We prioritize jobs bc we lack a social safety net.

In the early 20th century, futurists imagined that we’d be living in a utopian society by the year 2000–one in which we would all have much more free time to pursue our hobbies and simply relax while automation took care of labor. That could have been achievable w/ regulation—

Had we continued on the path that mid-century New Deal and Great Society policies started us on, but over the past 40+ years, those policies have been systematically destroyed one by one leaving us in an unprecedented era of wealth inequality that borders on techno-feudalism.

So no, I don’t think I care about prioritizing technological advancement over preserving the livelihoods of actual flesh and blood people in our current climate. Ask me once we’ve managed to completely reverse the effects of unchecked capitalism and our gerontocratic congress

Pandora’s box has been opened. Now it’s about fighting for regulation and guardrails to ensure corporations don’t run completely unchecked with no concern for collateral damage. It’s about setting ethical standards such as opt-in datasets that don’t scrape private personal data

Literally artists who worked on the show are sharing their utter disappointment and disgust with this on Twitter today. Many of them are my friends and colleagues. Yeah, what *about* the real people who worked on the actual show beyond the intro? What a disservice to them.

Dan Slott and Tom Taylor are also quite unhappy with this.

https://twitter.com/DanSlott/status/1671644868303568897

If they rushed out a bare bones opening credit sequence for next week and replaced the A.I. one, they would gain so much good will.

https://twitter.com/TomTaylorMade/st...68337322496000

If only Marvel, a company built on decades of work by incredible artists, had access to thousands of images of heroes and Skrulls set during Secret Invasion. But where could they possibly find such a resource?

https://twitter.com/TomTaylorMade/st...73140832362497

I have heard the excuses.
Professionals could have crafted exactly what they were after.
Don’t attempt to defend the use of AI over artists with me.
The potential death of all human creativity doesn’t need cheerleaders.

[James Cameron]

Yeah this was a misstep for sure. If they can't change the title sequence for the remaining episodes then they should at least apologize.

[Kirby101]

Jen Bartel has some really good insight from the artist's perspective.

https://twitter.com/heyjenbartel/sta...72202523639808

Bartel hits the most important point. AI will put millions, even tens of millions out of work, we have nothing in place to deal with this. When the rich and powerful no longer have anybody to sell the crap that makes them rich and powerful, and the ones displaced have no where to turn for their basic needs, stuff will hit the fan.